Set 93 - Himachal Pradesh

SET 93 - HIMACHAL PRADESH Information and Photography by Ronald M. Bernier, Professor of Art History, Department of Fine Arts, Campus Box 318, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309. All slides ©AAAUM/Bernier These photographs were made as part of a research project that resulted in publication of Himalayan Towers - Temples and Palaces of Himachal Pradesh, New Delhi 110055, and they will be part of the forthcoming Himalayan Architecture, a pan-Himalayan study of architecture from the Assam foothills in the east to the heights of Pakistan's Hunza in the west. 9301. The remoteness of many unstudied villages in Himachal Pradesh is indicated by this settlement with bhandar temple storehouse in Simla District. 9302. Arki stands for traditions of the Indian plain, including Rajasthan, as they were borrowed in combination with Mughal patterns mountain kingdoms. 9303. The audience of the diwankhana or audience hall is on the upper floor of the small fortress at Arki, and its open balcony commands a fine view. The dry fresco paintings that are found on the Arki fortress walls and ceilings are lively, clear, and often have folk art directness while they also show an eagerness to borrow imported styles and illusionism. 9304. Arki battle scenes are especially fresh and lively as well as based in historical fact, with British forces appearing to be almost comical in their rigid battle formations. 9305. This floral design in the entry hall of the diwankhana is a brittle and bold variation upon Mughal patterns as it shows the band of a very local artist, no doubt. 9306. Battle scenes are the main subject of Arki fortress painting. 9307. Painting an illusionistic scene of Venice based upon vanishing point perspective was a challenge that the artist must have enjoyed, as in other scenes in upper registers of the murals showing international cities. 9308. As a fairly late medieval structure of stone, the temple of Siva Mahadeva at Baijnath beside the Beas River below Mandi is large and very heavy. It is prominently placed at the beginning of the route into the Kulu Valley and dates from the 14th century. 9309. Nandi, bull of Siva, is subject of this large and weighty image carved of stone to face the sanctum sanctorum of Siva Mahadeva temple at Baijnath. 9310. Like the image of Nandi, this statue of Ganesa lacks lively rhythm and supple volumes, perhaps revealing the heavy-handed directness of mountain tastes more that the sophistication of the Hindu Renaissance at lower elevations. 9311. Visvesvara Mahadeva temple at Bajaura, dating from the 8th century, is the first major monument encountered as one travels toward Kulu from Mandi. Measuring 13 feet square, it is classic in composition and function as it honors Siva in the form of a linga inside the garbha grha, with three subsidiary shrines to the other cardinal directions. The inner room measures 8 feet six inches by 7 feet 2 inches. It is located at the foot of Kulu Valley near the confluence of the Beas and Parbatti rivers. 9312. This triple visage of Siva, a bhadramukha or "great face," gives rise to faces that are found on all four porches of the Bajaura temple tower, in this case a calmly male face at the center of a triple form above the major niche that holds a large image of Visnu of the back side of the temple. V.C. Ohri identifies the faces found around the building as belonging to Siva in composite form as ghora (terrific), saumya ("human"), and female (Uma) emanations. These elements are generally accepted as later in date than the temples as a whole. 9313. This 8th century image of Visnu is rather stiff but finely finished,m standing as reminder of Mulk Raj Anand's judgment that Bajaura temple extends itself into late stages of early medieval art when "sculpture overwhelmed architecture and later possessed it almost completely." 9314. Durga slays Mahisa in one of the most appealing stone sculptures in the Himalaya in this 8th century image from Bajaura. The goddess is about half life-size as she plunges her spear toward the symbol of evil that shares her large niche on the temple's north side. The bhadramukha above her centers on Uma. 9315. Ganesa is prominent in the large southern niche of Bajaura temple, with the bhadramukha trio above him centering on the terrific visage of Siva with bared teeth. 9316. Simple temples like this one in Simla District are typical of Himachal Pradesh design and materials as timber-bonded buildings covered by slate shingles. 9317. Behena is home of a large and quite open temple of Siva Mahadeva that might be compared to the large but lower Siva temple at Jagatsukh in Kulu Valley. The village is located just above the Sutlej River where it meets the Ani River. It is quite hostile to foreign visitors, presumably due to bad experiences in the past, but worth venturing into to see such elements as fetish-like pounding of nails into the temple porch. The doorframe of the entry is elaborately carved and wooden pendants hang from the temple roofs above. An unusual figure that is carved along with those of Ganesa, Vishnu, Siva Nataraja, and Laksmi is " the carpenter who made the temple"--possibly Visvakarman as Creative Principle. Its two -level open tower may be said to substitute for the stone sikhara of more classical temple while its open porch is made possible by the use of 16 vertical pillars and 20 slanting struts carved of deodar wood. Penelope Chetwode notes that this temple defines the "Sutlej Valley Style." 9318. We are reminded that any Asian art is vulnerable, even great towers that are built of stone, as we witness the submersion and silt-burial of the temples of Bilaspur that resulted from the completion of a major dam and water project in Himachal Pradesh. 9319. In its protected mountain setting, Brahmor served as the first capital of the royal hill state of Chamba state, and it preserved monuments dating from as early as the 7th century A.D. It is high above the Iravati River and above Budhal Valley, its fastness allowing for preservation of some of the most important art in Himachal Pradesh. 9320. In its protected mountain setting, Brahmor, the sikhara temple of Manimahesa Siva in Brahmor's main square dominates the small town. It shelters a linga in its garbha grha and there is a bhadramukha face of Siva above its doorway. The linga suggests middle pratihara prototypes and the temple is dated to the 10th century reign of King Sahilavarman as a replacement of a earlier temple of Siva. It is topped by a chatra umbrella roof made of wood that relates to those that are found in the later capital of Chamba town. 9321. The temple of Laksana Devi is the oldest structure in Brahmor, with a now roof line and repaired outer walls but still preserving its steeply pitched former roof line at the front and the rich wood carving of its entry doorframe and facade. While no recorded date is found here, it is attributed to the 7th or 8th century A.D., partly by evidence of the bronze image that it holds and of other bronze masterworks in Brahmor. 9322. The lantern ceiling of Lakshana Devi temple in Brahmor relates to countless other patterns in wood and stone that extend into Afghanistan and Kashmir, for example, but its importance in this case is due to its early origin and its immediate comparison to ceiling patterns at Ajanta and other Gupta or early post-Gupta sites. After moving through a small antechamber, one reaches the square sanctum and finds the lantern-enclosed mandala of the ceiling to be directly over the goddess herself. Her exquisite jewelry, but she represents Bhagavati as Durga in the act of destroying Mahisa. She stands just 3 feet 4 inches tall. 9323. Overview of the Brahmor temple square with art that dates from the 7th/8th century and later. 9324. Ganesa image made of cire perdu bronze (more properly brass) that occupies a humble structure as substitute for an earlier shrine lacks its original legs but is still imposing in its three foot height as it rests on a 14-inch pedestal. It is inscribed with the name of King Meruvarman whose reign is traced to the second or third quarter of the 7th century A.D., or just slightly later. Also recorded on the image is the name of the artist who made it: Gugga. J.Ph. Vogel was impressed more by the artist's technique than his style, but does allow that "we cannot but admire the skill with which he has succeeded in imparting majesty to the grotesque features of the elephant-faced god." 9325. The open pavilion that holds this charming image of the smiling Nandi is a recent construction, but the image itself, like the others here, was probably made at the site according to Hermann Goetz who terms them "good copies of late Gupta statuary such as it had flourished under the great Darshavardhana of Thanesar." Folk art inspiration is an important element of this statue that stands 5 feet tall. Local legend records that King Meruvarman used to write his royal decrees on Nandi's back. 9326. Like the other images in Brahmor, this statue of Narasimha is made of asthadhatu multiple metals. It stands 3 feet tall and occupies a small shrine that is later in date than this image that is, once more, associated with King Meruvarman and the artist Gugga. 9327. This ordinary house in Chamba town is "timber bonded" in the typical Himachal way.

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